Saaby Christmas Snippets

I’m not sure I’ve ever gone a full two days without writing in the last few years, but it was a refreshing break (apart from the dismal day 1 of the Boxing Day Test – Englishmen may feel free to gloat now).

So…. did you have a Saaby Christmas? Any Saaby gifts given or received?

Personally, I didn’t receive any Saaby gifts from the family. The only car-related gift was a copy of the new book by Ben Collins (aka the-driver-formerly-known-as The Stig), which at first reading, looks as if might have been co-authored by Troy Queef.

I did, however, receive a fantastic 2011 calendar from a friend in Skåne, Sweden. It’s a home-composed job, photo-printed and featuring photos that Bengt had taken at various events in 2010.

It’s taking pride of place in our kitchen.

——

I’ve got a couple of other things to be thankful for this Christmas, too.

We had a wonderful pre-Christmas visit earlier this month from a couple of Finns who were touring around Tasmania as part of a longer Australian trip. Eirik and Eeva will be well known to Finnish Saab Club members and we had a great time meeting them and chatting over a BBQ dinner.

Eirik’s got a fleet of Saabs, a few of which he’s handed down to his children, but he still does all the maintenance for the whole collection.

The red Saab 95 is a particular favourite. The black treatment around the windows is a tribute to the support cars that used to follow the Saab rally teams around, cars that also had this similar paintwork applied.

Eirik does the vast majority of the restoration work on these cars himself, which must be incredibly satisfying. He only recently completed work on this early Saab 96….

….and he also has a quite rare Saabo caravan in his collection, too. Fantastic!

It was wonderful to meet Eirik and Eeva and we hope to meet them again on their home soil at the 2011 IntSaab meeting, which will be held in Finland.

——

Another event from earlier in the month that I’m thankful involves a friend’s daughter.

Bill and Jane live in southern New South Wales and I met Bill when I bought my 900 a few years ago (and subsequently down here in Tas when they were on holiday).

Bill’s daughter Camilla was recently forced into some emergency evasion maneuvers when someone pulled out in front of her near their home. Thankfully, her Saab 900 stood up to the situation and did its job, protecting her whilst taking the brunt of a troubling impact.

Post navigation

I didn’t get anything Saaby for Christmas, however my 9-5 gave me a gift of safe travels today in New England. In blizzard conditions I travelled home in comfort and safety while others appeared to struggle in the blinding snow and wind gusts. This is the first big storm this winter and I am always amazed by the performance of these cars. Not looking forward to shoveling the snow tomorrow…..

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Oistein

Hi Swade! Yes we have by convincing my son in law to change his 1998 9-5 into a new or rather new 9-3. I think he is moving the right direction now. I didn’t wish you a merry x-mas, but never to late I hope so you and mrs must continue have some nice days before new year eve!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Brett

Well my aunt stole some photos from my Facebook page and had a sweet mousepad made! Very thoughtful. And my grandmother is funding my Saabnet and SCNA membership renewals. No complaints here! 🙂

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

gunteman

Kudos to them! The mousepad looks great!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

JH

The most Saaby thing that happens to me this christmas is that I am going begin reading the book “Saab-affären inifrån” (“The Saab deal from the inside”) written by the Swedish state secretary Jöran Hägglund. It will be interesting! 🙂

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Jake

Yep! I got myself a vintage ad featuring the Saab 96 and a Draken from 1963-ish!

Despite being Jewish, I got two Saab T-Shirts (from the wonderful DIY tshirt shop here at SU) and new tires for my C900. It’s been a wonderful holiday season!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Tim in Denver

trying again… Yes, some Saaby Christmas presents. This fall my son-in-law David took me up to the Colorado mountains and we took a bunch of pictures of my 2007 9-3 Aero. We used those pictures to develop some of the ads in the recent SU ad competition. So, though our submissions did not win anything, my wife had two of the ads printed as posters, and other pics developed into a personalized SAAB calendar. Merry Christmas to me.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Brad

Hey, has anyone seen any Saab ad’s on TV? Ihaven’t!!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

2natw

Not recently. I saw a few back in September – good ads. There’s a room with a bunch of designers/engineers – one sketch things that turn to leaves or one guy put a lamp behind a glass with ice cubes and it becomes the headlights… I know it sounds weird, but it was a very good ad.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Spidaman

My wonderful wife gave me a nice Saab baseball cap with the old style airplane logo.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

benrp

Yes! Some badges (still have to track down a talledega badge) and Saab floormats from state of nine which were great.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

GerritN

Nope, no Saaby Christmas. Sick on Christmas Day, missed the Christmas Diner. Blizzard on Boxing Day, had to cancel our Annual Boxing Day Diner for the first time. Weather is so dangerous now that I don’t even want to take our Saabs out to play. The only bright spot in this lousy weekend is that my new electric snow blower seems to be up to the task. First time in years that my back is holding out during so much snow. And almost forgot, a Boxster was delivered on Christmas eve, but the poor thing is now completely snowed in.… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

RS

Sounds familiar. Mrs went to visit her parents before Christmas and came back with an unbelievable cold thanks to sitting 45 minutes in their new (rather expensive) Japanese vehicle. The car had tried to keep the windscreen clear (at full blast causing an inflammation in both her eyes) and freezing everyones feet in the process. Prior to that there had been no trouble driving six hours up there in the OG9-3. As an interesting side story we don’t even have a block heater on the older Saab and yet it started no questions asked in -30 C after sitting in… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Greg Abbott

My Saaby Christmas present: <a href="“>

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Greg Abbott

Try this one on for size:

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Ron57RC

Nothing Saab related on the day but a week previous I was lucky to aquire winter tyres [which are rarer than hen’s teeth in Northeast Scotland at present] and now I can take the 9-3ss out to play – it was pretty much useless with summer tyres given our recent and current snowfall. Saabs are for driving after all. Perhaps that counts as an early Christmas present to myself. Swade, I’m glad you enjoyed the break from SU; you certainly deserve it given your prolific output over the years. It must have been a novelty for Mrs. Swade and the… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

andyb

Three SAAB T shirts of varying designs. ordered through the side bar of this site.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Camilla

Poor little ‘Anni-Frida’ has gone to Valhalla! Gee Whiz, she sure took one for the team! The under carriage was all twisted and the front passenger side crumpled under the bonnet with the impact. Although you could open all the doors, the back windscreen smashed with the impact as the rest of the body warped entirely. My only injuries were a cut my knee, bruising and a wicked seat belt mark. I was thrown against the drivers’ door hip first and the seat belt pulled me back into the seat. I am such a lucky girl,especially considering the impact and… Read more »

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

SuperSwede66

God Jul och ett Gott Nytt År from London to Swade and his family and all others who frequent SU.

I got the ‘Kampen om Saab’ book from my dad, having been given the ‘Saab-affären inifrån’ book a little while ago (but haven’t had time to read yet). We’re off to the in-laws for a few days from tomorrow so I shall be taking both books with me. I might get a chance to read at least one.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Markac

Naaah. Santa got lost this year!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

stefanh sthlm 93x

Happy Yule and a happy new year! I got the best Saab gift ever. Snow, snow, snow, snow! Me and my 93x disengage the Esp and have a heck of a time outside. 😀

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Phoenix

Is that Saab caravan hooked to a Skoda?? Hmmm

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Tompa

Hi all!

Noooo, I did not have a Saaby christmas. Why? Because my mom baught me a brand new Toyota Aygo MultiMode for christmas… I´ll keep it for a couple of years and then trade it for a 9-5SC TiD Auto. In the meantime, I´ll buy a 9K auto to stay true and keep on Saabing 🙂

God I hate auto boxes! Great around town, but sour on small twisty roads. But I´ll have to get used to them I guess. As some of you know, I´m no longer able to operate a manual any more.

No Gerrit, I wish. I have Multiple Sclerosis and my left leg is affected from nervdamage.

Toyota Aygo: Japanese for Wee letterbox on wheels.

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

ivo 71

Saaby gift? I guess it depends on how you define gift… While driving home Saturday from X-mas family dinner (a distance of about 100 km/65 miles) in wintery conditions and with the air temp around 0 deg. Centigrade, at about 25 km’s from our home town it started raining. As it had been freezing and snowing pretty seriously for the last few weeks, the road surface was deep-frozen despite the ambient air temperature. Although there was salt on the roads, this still caused the rain to turn into ice glaze instantly and the road became a ribbon of ice in… Read more »

So you bought Mattias 95, Hans! Hope you enjoy this icon. Mine is under 2 feet of snow right now. It will be my project car when I retire from the army.

My 95 without snow:

Hope you all will have a nice and happy new year!

Vote Up0Vote Down

7 years 2 months ago

Guest

Hans H

Yes I bought his car. I have followed his progress with it on the (Swedish) Saabforum and couldn’t resist when he wanted to sell it. It feels great. And it looks like my first car, a 1966 two-stroke 95 in polar white. My two small girls were very happy with my car and especially the extra seat. I knew they would. 🙂

Saab Car Museum

SCM Support

CardYourCar

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.